Constance Herbert

by Geraldine Jewsbury

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1855 edition. Excerpt: ... north, and, consequently, catches little sun. There is a strange, ghost-like look about it, as if it were standing in a dream, and ought to have been a ruin long ago. The Chauntry, as the place is called, was formerly an old church manor, and, as long ago as the reign of King Stephen, was the country house of the Nuns of Barking. In the large garden, that lies on the south side of the house, there is a broad sunny walk, sheltered by an esplanade of fruittrees, which is still called "The Nun's Walk." The Chauntry lands were bestowed by Henry the Eighth upon a family named Herbert, de Herbert it was then, for they owned estates in other parts of England, and were a powerful family; but the broad lands were diminished in the troublesome times of the Parliamentary wars, and more recently in the cause of the Stuarts; and early in the reign of George the Third the de Herberts had settled down on the remnant that remained--a peaceful race of country squires, without the chivalrous de, -- cultivating their own land, the private carriage and coach-and-four in which they formerly used to travel to the parish church being given up, and their ordinary style of living differing but little from that of the better class of farmers, although they still retained their standing amongst the gentry of the country, and Squire Herbert, as he was called, was noted for keeping the finest breed of horses in that part of the country. Also the Chauntry lands contained a small borough, one of the anomalies since swallowed up in "Schedule A;" and this borough, of which the owner of the "Chauntry" disposed at his pleasure, gave the estate an importance which it could scarcely have derived from its extent, though it was a handsome, compact estate, and lay all within a...

42 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1855

About the author

Geraldine Jewsbury was born in Measham, then in Derbyshire, now in Leicestershire. She was the daughter of Thomas Jewsbury (d. 1840), a cotton manufacturer and merchant, and his wife Maria, née Smith, (d. 1819). The family moved to Manchester in 1818, after her father's business failed. After her mother died, she was brought up by her sister Maria Jane Jewsbury. In 1841 Geraldine Jewsbury met the Carlyles. Thomas Carlyle pronounced her "one of the most interesting young women I have seen for years, delicate sense & courage looking out of her small sylph-like figure." Jewsbury has earned a place in literature in three respects: as a novelist, as a critic and publisher's reader, and as a figure in London literary life. Jewsbury was primarily a novelist of ideas and moral dilemmas.